The Ponyville void
by Benkuson
Summary: If someone is immortal and feels no pain - how can he be punished for his crimes? Twilight has the answer: Teach that 'someone' about love and friendship and then take it away! This is exactly what Twilight will do to the murderous being that has invaded Ponyville. But can a creature of cold logic and reasoning be taught about something as strange as love?


It was a cool summer evening. The air was scented with flowers and fruit, here and there were swarms of fireflies. Twilight Sparkle sat in her bedroom window, feeling the breeze caress her face as she listened to the evening noises. Down the road was a party, the music and happy voices came all the way to Twilights window; the bushes hid a songbird singing the last songs for the night; the sky was not yet dark, some rays of light still gave color to the horizon.

Suddenly, the horizon seemed brighter. Twilight checked her clock - could she have lost track of time to the extent of being awake all the way to sunrise? No, that wasn't it...

The light in the distance rapidly grew brighter until it reached a peak and went away. In the light's stead came a rumbling noise, seemingly from deep underground that caused everything to quake. Ponies gathered in the streets looking worried as they held their young ones close and whispered to one and other. The quaking stopped after a minute and everything was silent. By now Mayor Mare had arrived together with some other male ponies, probably from her office. She climbed up on a cart and the citizens gathered around her.

"Ponies!" she bellowed. "Please remain indoors! It seems some sort of natural phenomenon has just occurred! Everypony, please keep calm while we await further notice from the town officials who are currently investigating the scene! I'm certain that whatever just happened is nothing to worry about."

As Mayor Mare stepped down from the cart the masses whispered to each other and started to disperse. Twilight could see that the mayor's speech did close to nothing to return the peace to everyponie's minds. She threw a blanket over herself and kept looking through the open window as a pony came bolting from the direction of the event. He was flushed with sweat and could barely breathe – his face was dirty and on his flank was a nasty gash.

Mayor Mare met up with the official as the citizens huddled up a bit behind her.

"What news do you bring?" she asked him as he caught his breath.

"Thewa-… Andthe-…. Th-the-the…!"

"Calm yourself! You aren't making sense!"

The pony took half a dozen quick deep breaths.

"There was a m-m-massive… a massive…. th-thing! It… it t-t-took…"

Before the pony could finish delivering his report the 'massive thing' had come into view.

Down the road a silhouette was approaching the town with long strides. It wasn't a pony. It wasn't a dragon. Its shoulders were sharp and reflected the still setting sun. It was grey like steel and moved with conviction on its hind legs with the front legs hanging by its sides, its body stretching to possibly three times the height of an ordinary pony. Twilight didn't need it to come closer for her to realize the thing, whatever it was, had murderous intent. She closed her window and saw the ponies outside shrieking and running indoors.

In a sudden flash the creature was behind the town official, who was still sweating from the long run. Twilight couldn't see what happened - one second the official was there and the next he was gone. The creature was now standing face to face with Mayor Mare.

The mayor was stunned. Her hind legs went limp and she sat down on the ground. A wet patch grew around her as she gazed into the face of the bipedal creature. Then, in a fraction of a second, she too was gone without a trace.

Twilight snuck away from the window, extinguished all the lights and built a fort of books and blankets in the middle of the library. Spike awoke and saw what she had done. He went to ask her what was going on but she quickly pulled him in and covered his mouth. She didn't dare to explain, she didn't dare to cry. All she could think about was to keep quiet, keep out of sight and keep safe.

Outside her home utter chaos erupted. Many others had witnessed the disappearing of the official and the mayor and though the same as Twilight. She could hear the last cries of ponies being devoured by the monster, their screams painless and sudden but filled with mortal fear. It was like the flipping of a switch: Screaming to silent in an abrupt fashion without transition. This went on for hours it seemed. Twilight sat with her hoof tightly pressed over Spikes mouth, rocking her body back and forth to keep her blood flowing and herself from fainting from the tension. Tears ran down her cheek as she wished none of her friends would get devoured, that they were already somewhere safe outside of Ponyville. She wished and wished until she froze in even greater fear at the sound of a familiar voice.

She heard Applejack.

"You better stop what you are doin', ya hear? I ain't gonna hide, ya oaf! I'd rather get eat'n than hide from you! Fight, damn you, fight!" Applejack yelled at the top of her lungs outside of the house.

Twilight blew her cover and sprinted out the door to the street. The first thing she saw was her friend brandishing a lasso, ready to throw it over the monstrous being.

"Applejack! You have got to hide! Please, o please, o pleeeease! Come hide!" Twilight cried but Applejack wouldn't listen, so she threw herself over her friend and forced her into cover behind some barrels.

On the other side of the barrels Twilight could hear another pony challenging the creature with an accent much like Applejacks, but older and more demented.

"Ooh, yo's gunna get it now, ya cretin! Yo's gunna get da stabbin' of a lifetime!" Granny Smith yelled as she attempted to charge the creature with a broomstick. Her attack was an utter failure and so she too disappeared.

Applejack broke out of Twilight's grip and faced the being once again. She got the lasso in the air and threw it. It was a perfect throw: It went straight over the head of the creature and bonded the creature's arms to his sides. The rope didn't stay on long though – the creature revealed sharp claws on its hands and cut itself free as if the rope had been nothing but smoke.

Applejack readied herself for an attack but it never came. The creature remained where it was, looking down on the young pony. It then opened the mouth of its cold and steely face and spoke with an icy and haunting voice:

"IT IS FINISHED."

Twilight and Applejack stood and stared for a minute, awaiting an explanation.

"What is finished?" Applejack finely asked.

"MY THOUSAND YEAR FEEDING – IT IS FINISHED."

Twilight didn't consider this a complete explanation.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I HAVE FEASTED ON THE FLESH AND SOULS OF YOUR PONYKIND. THROUGH THIS I WILL SUSTAIN MYSELF FOR ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARS, SLUMBERING UNDERGROUND UNTILL THE NEXT DAY OF FEEDING."

The creature then simply turned and headed back the way it came.

Applejack went running after it.

"Whoa, wait up partner! Ya can't just wander into Ponyville, eat our friends and family and expect yourself to be able to just… just walk home like nothin'! We demand retribution!"

"WHAT IS IT YOU ASK OF ME?"

"I'm asking… I… I guess I'm asking for an apology? Oh, yeah, and you've gotta get sum kinda punishment, too! See, that's the way we do it here in Ponyville and, frankly, everywhere else too! So what d'ya have to say for yourself?"

The creature looked on Applejack, confused.

"I HAVE NEVER BEEN PUNISHED. NONE HAS PUNISHED ME EVER IN MY EXISTANCE."

"Well then, I'm guessin' it's about time, then!"

"WHAT IS A 'PUNISHMENT'?"

"It's a, uh… It's like a payback. You killed some of us and now we gonna kill some of you! I think…"

"I AM THE ONLY OF MY KIND – ALSO I AM IMMORTAL AND CAN THEREFORE NOT BE KILLED. YOUR PUNISHMENT HAS FAILED."

"Well, can ya feel pain?"

"I FEEL NO PAIN. I ONLY FEEL THE HUNGER, THE CRAVING. AS WE SPEAK MY HUNGER HAS BEEN SATISFIED, NOTHING WILL BOTHER ME UNTILL THE NEXT FEEDING."

"Well, then… Is there something you enjoy, something that we could take away from you?"

"I ONLY ENJOY THE FEEDING. FOR YOU TO TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME YOU WOULD HAVE TO EXTINGUISH ALL LIFE. WILL THIS BE MY PUNISHMENT?"

"Oh, gosh, no! But what about things you love? What do you do between the, er… feedings? What is fun to you?"

"I KNOW NOT OF 'FUN' OR 'LOVE'. BECAUSE OF THIS, SUCH THINGS CAN NOT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM ME."

By now Twilight had caught up and overheard some of the discussion. She seemed to have a solution.

"The way I see it" Twilight said, "we only have one thing we can do. We have to teach him about love and friendship – and then take all that away from him!"

The creature looked down on the two ponies and thought for a minute.

"YOU MEAN TO MAKE ME A PART OF YOUR VILLAGE IN AN ATTEMPT TO GIVE ME SOMETHING TO TAKE AWAY AS PUNISHMENT IN THE FUTURE? THIS IS A LOGICAL SOLUTION. I ACCEPT."

Twilight and Applejack high-hooved each other.

"HOWEVER" the being continued "I SHALL RETURN FOR MY NEXT THOUSAND YEAR FEEDING WHEN THE TIME COMES. I CAN NOT CONCEIVE OF A PUNISHMENT TO STOP ME FROM FEEDING, FOR FEEDING IS WHAT DRIVES ME."

"We'll see about that" Twilight said with a smirk. "When we have taught you love and friendship, you'll want nothing but cupcakes and fun!"


End file.
